The streets of Jerusalem are cleaner than those of any other town in the Levant; though, like all of them, they are very narrow. The houses are lofty; and, as no windows appear on any of the lower stories, and those above are latticed, the passage seems to be between blank walls. We visited the bazars, or shops, which are in a most unwholesome situation, being covered over, and, to all appearance, a nursery for every species of contagion. Hardly any thing was exposed for sale: the various articles of commerce were secreted, through fear of Turkish rapacity. Our inquiry after medals was not attended with any success; but an Armenian produced a very fine antique gem, a carnelian deeply intagliated, representing a beautiful female head decorated with a laurel chaplet. He asked a piastre for it, smiling at the same time, as if he thought it not worth a para. Upon being paid his demand, he threw down the gem, eagerly seizing the money, and burst into an immoderate fit of laughter.'

Our travellers next viewed an extraordinary burying-place, about a mile from Jerusalem, called the sepulchres of the kings of Judah.' On their return they made an ineffectual attempt to procure liberty to view the mosque erected upon the site of the temple by the caliph Omar, and which they pronounced the most magnificent piece of architecture in the Turkish empire.

'When we had seen all,' says Dr. Clarke, and much more than is worth notice, in Jerusalem; and had obtained from the superior of the Franciscan monastery the usual certificate given to pilgrims, of the different places we had visited in the Holy Land; we prepared for our departure. The worthy friars, who had treated us with very great attention, finding that we were determined to go to Bethlehem, where the plague then raged with fatal violence, told us, with expressions of regret, that they could not again receive us, if we persisted in our intention. We therefore took leave of them, resolved at all events to see the place of our Saviour's nativity, and then continue our jour ney to Jaffa, without entering Jerusalem in our return.

'Upon our road, we met an Arab with a goat, which he led about the country to exhibit, in order to gain a livelihood for itself

and its owner. He had taught this animal, while he accompanied its movements with a song, to mount upon little cylindrical blocks of wood, placed successively one above the other, and in shape resembling the dice-boxes belonging to a backgammon table. In this manner the goat stood, first upon the top of one cylinder, then upon the top of two, and afterwards of three, four, five, and six, until it remained balanced upon the summit of them all, elevated several feet from the ground, and with its four feet collected upon a single point, without throwing down the disjointed fabric whereon it stood. The practice is very ancient. It is also noticed by Sandys. Nothing can shew more strikingly the tenacious footing possessed by this quadruped upon the jutty points and crags of rocks; and the circumstance of its ability to remain thus poised may render its appearance less surprising, as it is sometimes seen in the Alps, and in all mountainous countries, with hardly any place for its feet upon the sides, and by the brink of most tremendous precipices. The diameter of the upper cylinder, on which its four feet ultimately remained until the Arab had ended his ditty, was only two inches; and the length of each cylinder was six inches. The most curious part of the performance occurred afterwards; for the Arab, to convince us of the animal's attention to the turn of the air, interrupted the da capo: as often as he did this, the goat tottered, appeared uneasy, and, upon his becoming suddenly silent in the middle of his song, it fell to the ground.

'After travelling for about an hour, from the time of our leaving Jerusalem, we came in view of Bethlehem, and halted to enjoy the interesting sight. The town appeared covering the ridge of a hill on the southern side of a deep and extensive valley, and reaching from east to west; the most conspicuous object being the monastery, erected over the cave of the nativity, in the suburbs and upon the eastern side. The battlements and walls of this building seemed like those of a vast fortress. The Dead Sea below, upon our left, appeared so near to us, that we thought we could have rode thither in a very short space of time. The atmosphere was remarkably clear and serene; but we saw none of those clouds of smoke,

which, by some writers, are said to exhale from the surface of lake Asphaltites, nor from any neighbouring mountain. Every thing about it was, in the highest degree, grand and awful. Its desolate, although majestic features, are well suited to the tales related concerning it by the inhabitants of the country, who all speak of it with terror, seeming to shrink from the narrative of its deceitful allurements and deadly influence. "Beautiful fruit," say they, "grows upon its shores, which is no sooner touched, than it becomes dust and bitter ashes." In addition to its physical horrors, the region around is said to be more perilous, owing to the ferocious tribes wandering upon the shores of the lake, than any other part of the Holy Land. A passion for the marvellous has thus affixed, for ages, false characteristics to the sublimest associations of natural scenery in the whole world; for, although it be now known that the waters of this lake, instead of proving destructive to animal life, swarm with myriads of fishes; that, instead, of falling victims to its exhalations, certain birds make it their peculiar resort; that shells abound upon its shores; that the pretended "fruit, containing ashes," is as natural and as admirable a production of nature as the rest of the vegetable kingdom; that bodies sink or float in it, according to the proportion of their gravity to the gravity of the water; that its vapours are not more insalubrious than those of any other lake; that innumerable Arabs people the neighbouring district; notwithstanding all these facts are now well established, even the latest authors by whom it is mentioned, and one among the number, from whose writings some of these truths have been derived, continue to fill their descriptions with imaginary horrors and ideal phantoms, which, though less substantial than the "black perpendicular rocks" around it, "cast their lengthened shadows over the waters of the Dead Sea.”

The temptation to visit Bethlehem was so great, that, notwithstanding the increasing alarms concerning the ravages of the plague as we drew near the town, we resolved, at all events, to venture thither. For this purpose calling all our troop together, we appointed certain members of our cavalcade to keep a look-out, and act as guards in the van, centre, and